Good Night, and Good Luck Reception
Who did George Clooney worked with?
Who did George Clooney worked with in Good Night, and Good Luck?
The film was critically acclaimed upon release. It was named "Best Reviewed Film of 2005 in Limited Release" by Rotten Tomatoes, where it achieved a 93% positive review rating, based on reviews from 217 critics. The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Director (Clooney), and Actor (Strathairn).  Roger Ebert, in his Chicago Sun-Times review, contends that "the movie is not really about the abuses of McCarthy, but about the process by which Murrow and his team eventually brought about his downfall (some would say his self-destruction). It is like a morality play, from which we learn how journalists should behave. It shows Murrow as fearless, but not flawless." Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton from the ABC show At the Movies each gave the film five stars, making Good Night, and Good Luck the only other film besides Brokeback Mountain to receive such a score from the hosts in 2005. Both described the film as "beautiful" but also praised Clooney for the film's importance. Margaret commented that "[The film] is so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion." David noted "Though [the film] is in black-and-white, there's nothing monochromatic about Clooney's passion for his subject or the importance of his message."  Jack Shafer, a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow. Clooney's film gives the impression that Murrow brought down McCarthy single-handedly, while Shafer notes that in reality much of the mainstream media, many Democrats and some of McCarthy's Republican peers were condemning him before Murrow. Furthermore, Shafer writes, evidence obtained via the declassified Venona espionage program confirmed that many Soviet agents and sympathizers were in fact in positions of influence in the U.S. government, a disclosure the film entirely overlooks: "Clooney and company ignore the material that might argue against their simple-minded thesis about Murrow, the era, and the press to produce an after-school special".  One complaint about the film among test audiences was their belief that the actor playing McCarthy was too over the top, not realizing that the film used actual archive footage of McCarthy himself. CANNOTANSWER
" Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton
Good Night, and Good Luck (stylized as good night, and good luck.) is a 2005 historical drama film directed by George Clooney, and starring David Strathairn, Patricia Clarkson, Clooney, Jeff Daniels, Robert Downey Jr., and Frank Langella. The film was written by Clooney and Grant Heslov, and portrays the conflict between veteran radio and television journalist Edward R. Murrow (Strathairn) and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, especially relating to the anti-Communist Senator's actions with the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Although released in black and white, it was filmed on color film stock, but on a grayscale set, and was color-corrected to black and white during post-production. It focuses on the theme of media responsibility, and also addresses what occurs when the media offers a voice of dissent from government policy. The movie takes its title (which ends with a period or full stop) from the line with which Murrow routinely signed off his broadcasts.

The film received critical acclaim for Clooney's direction, the writing, cinematography, production design, and performances (particularly Strathairn's). It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Strathairn.

Plot
The setting is 1953, during the early days of television broadcast journalism. Edward R. Murrow, along with his news team, producer Fred Friendly and reporter Joseph Wershba, learn of U.S. Air Force officer Milo Radulovich, who is being forcibly discharged because of family members being known communists and his refusal to denounce them.

Interest is piqued when it is found that the compilation of charges at Radulovich's hearing was in a sealed envelope and nobody saw them. Murrow presents the story to CBS News' director, Sig Mickelson, who warns Murrow that the story will bring serious accusations and repercussions to CBS and their sponsors, some of whom have government contracts. He reluctantly allows the story to air, which gains positive responses from the public. Murrow also tries to ease the worries of his colleague, Don Hollenbeck, who is struggling with both the strain of his recent divorce and attacks from newspaper writer Jack O'Brian, who is accusing him of being biased in his news reporting and being a "pinko".

Wershba is then given an envelope suggesting that Murrow has previously interacted with the Soviets and used to be on their payroll. CBS's Chief Executive, William Paley, brings this up with Murrow. He warns him that if any members of his staff are associated with Communism in any way, however remotely, they would have to recuse themselves from Murrow's next story. They were planning to make a direct attack on Senator Joseph McCarthy and his crusade against Communist infiltration in the U.S. government, which some denounce as a witch hunt. Friendly and Murrow gather their staff together, and when one of the team members voluntarily excuses himself because his ex-wife had attended Communist meetings before they even met, Murrow concludes that this kind of fear is what McCarthy wants. The team stays together and presents the story, which becomes highly praised by the public and the press, with the exception of Jack O'Brian, who continues to attack both Murrow and especially Hollenbeck on their supposed support of communism. Hollenbeck pleads with Murrow to go after O'Brian, but Murrow reluctantly tells him that he cannot attack O'Brian while he is busy going after McCarthy.

As the team turns their focus to a filmed hearing of Annie Lee Moss, a Pentagon communication worker accused of being a Communist based on her name appearing on a list seen by an FBI infiltrator of the American Communist Party, they receive the news that Milo Radulovich is being reinstated by the Air Force, citing no direct evidence supporting any connections with Communism. McCarthy then asks for the opportunity to speak for himself on Murrow's show, which Murrow allows. McCarthy openly accuses Murrow of being a Communist, citing several pieces of evidence that seem to support it. Murrow broadcasts a rebuttal the following week, easily disproving McCarthy's accusations and pointing out that McCarthy didn't do anything to defend himself other than accuse anyone who opposes him as being either a Communist or a Communist sympathizer.

A few days later, the news arrives that the U.S. Senate is investigating McCarthy, which means the imminent end of his crusade. As the team celebrates, Friendly and Murrow learn that Hollenbeck has died by suicide. Paley then tells Murrow and Friendly that their news program's air time is going to be severely cut, citing the high costs of the show's production, along with Murrow's attacks on controversial topics. Also, Joe Wershba and his wife Shirley, who have been concealing their marriage due to CBS forbidding co-workers from being married, are approached by Mickelson, who tells them that everyone knows of their marriage and that he will allow one of them to resign to save face, which Joe agrees to do.

The film is framed by performance of the speech given by Murrow to the Radio and Television News Directors Association at "A Salute to Edward R. Murrow" on October 25, 1958, in which he harshly admonishes his audience not to squander the potential of television to inform and educate the public, so that it does not become only "wires and lights in a box".

Cast
 David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow, journalist and host of the CBS television program See It Now
 George Clooney as Fred W. Friendly, coproducer with Murrow of See It Now
 Robert Downey Jr., as Joseph Wershba, writer, editor, and correspondent for CBS News
 Patricia Clarkson as Shirley Wershba
 Frank Langella as William Paley, chief executive of CBS
 Jeff Daniels as Sig Mickelson, director of CBS News
 Tate Donovan as Jesse Zousmer
 Ray Wise as Don Hollenbeck, journalist for CBS News; accused in the press of being a "pinko".
 Helen Slayton-Hughes as Mary
 Alex Borstein as Natalie
 Thomas McCarthy as Palmer Williams
 Rose Abdoo as Mili Lerner
 Reed Diamond as John Aaron
 Matt Ross as Eddie Scott
 Grant Heslov as Don Hewitt, director of See It Now
 Glenn Morshower as Colonel Anderson
 Don Creech as Colonel Jenkins
 Robert John Burke as Charlie Mack
 Robert Knepper as Don Surine
 Dianne Reeves as Jazz Singer
 JD Cullum as Stage Manager
 Peter Jacobson as Jimmy
 Simon Helberg as CBS Page
 Joseph McCarthy (archive footage) as himself
 Liberace (archive footage) as himself
 Roy Cohn (archive footage) as himself
 Dwight D. Eisenhower (archive footage) as himself

Production
In September 2005, Clooney explained his interest in the story to an audience at the New York Film Festival: "I thought it was a good time to raise the idea of using fear to stifle political debate." Having majored in journalism in college, Clooney was well-versed in the subject matter. His father, Nick Clooney, was a television journalist for many years, appearing as an anchorman in Cincinnati, Ohio; Salt Lake City, Utah; Los Angeles, California; and Buffalo, New York. The elder Clooney also ran for Congress in 2004.

George Clooney was paid $1 each for writing, directing, and acting in Good Night, and Good Luck., which cost $7.5 million to make. Due to an injury he received on the set of Syriana a few months earlier, Clooney could not pass the tests to be insured. He then mortgaged his own house in Los Angeles in order to make the film. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and former eBay president Jeffrey Skoll invested money in the project as executive producers. The film ultimately grossed more than $54 million worldwide.

The CBS offices and studios seen in the movie were all sets on a sound stage. To accomplish a pair of scenes showing characters going up an elevator, different "floors" of the building were laid out on the same level. The "elevator" was actually built on a large turntable at the intersection of the two floor sets, and rotated once the doors were closed. When the doors reopened, the actors appeared to be in a different location. In doing so, the movie exercised a bit of dramatic license—the CBS executive offices at the time were located at 485 Madison Avenue. CBS News was located in an office building just north of Grand Central Terminal (demolished and now the site of the MetLife Building); and the See It Now studio was located in Grand Central Terminal itself, above the waiting room. For dramatic effect, all three areas were depicted as being in the same building.

Clooney and producer Grant Heslov decided to use only archival footage of Joseph McCarthy in his depiction. As all of that footage was black-and-white, that determined the color scheme of the film. A young Robert F. Kennedy is also shown in the movie during McCarthy's hearing sessions. He was then a staff member on the Senate subcommittee chaired by McCarthy.

Music
A small jazz combo starring jazz singer Dianne Reeves was hired to record the soundtrack to the movie. This combo (Peter Martin, Christoph Luty, Jeff Hamilton and Matt Catingub) was featured in the movie in several scenes; for example, in one scene the newsmen pass a studio where she is recording with the rest of the band. The CD is Dianne Reeves's second featuring jazz standards (including "How High the Moon", "I've Got My Eyes on You", "Too Close For Comfort", "Straighten Up and Fly Right" and "One for My Baby"), and it won the Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Jazz Vocal Album.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack to Good Night, and Good Luck. was released on September 27, 2005. The film's score was composed by Jim Papoulis.

Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 226 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critics consensus states: "A passionate and concise cinematic civics lesson, Good Night, and Good Luck has plenty to say about today's political and cultural climate, and its ensemble cast is stellar." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100 based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

The film received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Director (Clooney), and Actor (Strathairn).

Roger Ebert, in his Chicago Sun-Times review, contends that "the movie is not really about the abuses of McCarthy, but about the process by which Murrow and his team eventually brought about his downfall (some would say his self-destruction). It is like a morality play, from which we learn how journalists should behave. It shows Murrow as fearless, but not flawless." Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's film review show At the Movies each gave the film five stars, making Good Night, and Good Luck the only other film besides Brokeback Mountain to receive such a score from the hosts in 2005. Both described the film as "beautiful", but also praised Clooney for the film's importance. Pomeranz commented that, "[The film] is so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion." David noted: "Though [the film] is in black-and-white, there's nothing monochromatic about Clooney's passion for his subject or the importance of his message."

Jack Shafer, at the time a libertarian-leaning columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow. Clooney's film gives the impression that Murrow brought down McCarthy single-handedly, while Shafer notes that in reality much of the mainstream media, many Democrats and some Republicans were condemning him before Murrow. Furthermore, Shafer writes, evidence obtained via the declassified Venona espionage program confirmed that many Soviet agents and sympathizers were in fact in positions of influence in the U.S. government, a disclosure the film entirely overlooks: "Clooney and company ignore the material that might argue against their simple-minded thesis about Murrow, the era, and the press to produce an after school special".

One complaint about the film among test audiences was their belief that the actor playing McCarthy was too over the top, not realizing that the film used actual archive footage of McCarthy himself.

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for six Academy Awards at the 2006 Academy Awards, for six BAFTAs at the 2005 BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globes at the 2006 Golden Globe Awards. The American Film Institute named Good Night, and Good Luck. as one of the Top Ten Movies of 2005.

See also
History of television
Tail Gunner Joe-a 1977 TV movie starring Peter Boyle as Joseph McCarthy 
Red Scare

References

External links

 
 
 
 
 

Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album
2005 films
2000s historical drama films
2000s political drama films
American black-and-white films
American films
American historical drama films
American political drama films
Drama films based on actual events
English-language films
European Film Awards winners (films)
Films about freedom of expression
Films set in the 1950s
Films about journalists
Films about McCarthyism
Films about television
Films about the Hollywood blacklist
Films directed by George Clooney
Films produced by Grant Heslov
Films set in 1953
Films set in 1958
Films set in New York City
Films with screenplays by George Clooney
Films with screenplays by Grant Heslov
Lionsgate films
Participant Media films
Procedural films
Warner Independent Pictures films
Warner Bros. films
Biographical films about journalists
Clooney is a surname of Irish origin, derived from the Irish word cluana. Notable people with the surname include:

Amal Clooney (née Alamuddin) (born 1978), Lebanese-British lawyer and wife of George Clooney
Francis Xavier Clooney (born 1950), American academic and Roman Catholic priest
George Clooney (born 1961), American actor
Nick Clooney (born 1934), American TV host and journalist, father of George
Rosemary Clooney (1928–2002), American singer and actress, aunt of George

Anglicised Irish-language surnames
Surnames of Irish origin John Prendergast is a human rights and anti-corruption activist as well as a New York Times best-selling author. He is the Co-Founder with George Clooney of The Sentry, an investigative and policy team that follows the dirty money connected to war criminals and transnational war profiteers. John is also the Strategic Director of the Clooney Foundation for Justice.

Career
In the latter half of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, Prendergast worked for a variety of organizations in the U.S. and Africa, focusing primarily on peace and human rights.  At the end of 1996, he joined the National Security Council as Director for African Affairs and thereafter served as a special adviser to Susan Rice at the United States Department of State.  As a special adviser, Prendergast was a member of the team behind the successful two-and-a-half-year U.S. effort to broker an end to the Eritrean–Ethiopian War. He has also been part of the peace processes for Burundi, Sudan and DR Congo. Prendergast has also worked for the Clinton White House and two members of Congress, and left government in 2001 to become Special Adviser to the President of the International Crisis Group on Africa issues. Outside of government, he has worked for organizations such as the United States Institute of Peace, UNICEF, and Human Rights Watch. 

In 2007, alongside Gayle Smith, Prendergast co-founded the Enough Project, a policy organization aimed at countering genocide and crimes against humanity. He is also a co-founder along with George Clooney of The Sentry, an investigative initiative created to uncover the financial networks behind conflicts in Africa and whose Board of Directors includes Clooney, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt. Together, Clooney and Prendergast had also previously co-founded the Satellite Sentinel Project, which aimed to prevent conflict and human rights abuses through satellite imagery. In 2020, Prendergast was named the Strategic Director of the Clooney Foundation for Justice. Other initiatives of Prendergast include founding the Darfur Dream Team Sister Schools Program with Tracy McGrady and other NBA stars, which funded schools in Darfurian refugee camps and created partnerships with schools in the U.S., as well as the Raise Hope for Congo campaign, highlighting the issue of conflict minerals fueling war in Congo and supporting a more comprehensive peace process. 

Prendergast has been a visiting professor at many universities and colleges, including Yale Law School, Stanford University, and Columbia University. He has been awarded seven honorary doctorates, and serves as the Anne Evans Estabrook Human Rights Senior Fellow at Kean University.

Media 
Prendergast has written extensively on Africa and is the author or co-author of eleven books. His latest book is Congo Stories: Battling Five Centuries of Exploitation and Greed (2018), co-authored with Congolese activist Fidel Bafilemba and featuring photographs by Ryan Gosling. His two books prior to that were co-authored with actor and activist Don Cheadle. Those are Not On Our Watch, a New York Times bestseller and NAACP non-fiction book of the year, and The Enough Moment: Fighting to End Africa's Worst Humanitarian Crimes. He is currently working on a project concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo with Gosling and New Yorker writer Kelefa Sanneh.

Prendergast has appeared in five episodes of 60 Minutes and traveled to Africa with Dateline NBC, ABC’s Nightline, The PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and CNN’s Inside Africa, Newsweek/The Daily Beast, and The New York Times Magazine. He has also appeared in several documentaries, including: Merci Congo, Sand and Sorrow, Darfur Now, 3 Points, and War Child. He co-produced Journey Into Sunset, and is Executive Producer of Staging Hope: Acts of Peace in Northern Uganda, both about Northern Uganda. He also appears in the Warner Brother's motion picture The Good Lie. 

Jane Bussmann was inspired by his work and meetings with him to write her 2012 book The Worst Date Ever: or How it Took a Comedy Writer to Expose Joseph Kony and Africa's Secret War, a comic/tragic story of her attempt as a novice foreign correspondent to expose the truth about the war in Uganda. He is also the primary subject in another book by Bussmann, A Journey to the Dark Heart of Nameless Unspeakable Evil.

Criticism
Prendergast's activism has been criticized by Mahmood Mamdani as simplistic, counter-productive, and detrimental to the reality on the ground, especially regarding Darfur and Northern Uganda.

Publications

Articles
 "George Clooney on Sudan’s Rape of Darfur". Co-authored with George Clooney and Akshaya Kumar. The New York Times, 25 February 2015.
"Sanctions threats not enough in South Sudan". Co-authored with George Clooney and Akshaya Kumar. CNN, 25 June 2015.
"How to Destroy a War Economy". Foreign Affairs, 10 August 2015. Published by the Council on Foreign Relations.
"War crimes shouldn’t pay in South Sudan". Co-authored with George Clooney. The Washington Post, 12 September 2016.
"Stop the Cash, Stop the Conflict". Co-authored with George Clooney. Originally published in The Economist, 21 November 2016.
"A New Tool to Fight Genocide". Co-authored with Brad Brooks-Rubin. Foreign Affairs, 15 December 2016. Published by the Council on Foreign Relations.
"Modernize, don’t remove, Sudan’s sanctions". Co-authored with Brad Brooks-Rubin. The Hill, 18 January 2017.
"Congo's violent kleptocracy at a crossroads". Co-authored with Sasha Lezhnev. Fox News, 4 February 2017.
"British banks are go-betweens in global conflict. This can be stopped". Co-authored with George Clooney. The Guardian, 20 February 2017.
"South Sudan’s government-made famine". Co-authored with George Clooney. The Washington Post, 9 March 2017.
“The Key to Making Peace in Africa”. Co-authored with George Clooney. Foreign Affairs, Vol. 97, No. 2, 14 March 2018. Published by the Council on Foreign Relations.
"Our World Runs on Resources Looted From Congo. That's Why Democratic Elections Alone Can't Solve the Country's Problems". Co-authored with Sasha Lezhnev. Time, 28 December 2018.
"George Clooney and John Prendergast: Sudan needs more than words. It needs action". Co-authored with George Clooney. The Washington Post, 14 April 2019.
"George Clooney & John Prendergast: Violence is the business model in South Sudan". Co-authored with George Clooney. USA Today, 3 October 2019.

Books
Peace, Development, and People of the Horn of Africa. Co-authored with Bread for the World (Organization). Washington D.C.: Institute on Hunger & Development, Center of Concern, 1992. 
Civilian Devastation: Abuses by All Parties in the War in Southern Sudan. Co-authored with Jemera Rone and Karen Sorensen. Human Rights Watch, 1994. 
Without Troops & Tanks: The Emergency Relief Desk and the Cross Border Operation into Eritrea and Tigray. Co-authored by Mark R. Duffield. The Red Sea Press, 1994. 

Crisis Response: Humanitarian Band-aids in Sudan and Somalia. Washington, D.C.: Center of Concern, 1997. 
Frontline Diplomacy: Humanitarian Aid and Conflict in Africa. Co-authored with the Center of Concern. L. Rienner, 1996 
God, Oil & Country:  Changing the Logic of War in Sudan. Africa Report #39. International Crisis Group, January 28, 2002.
Blood and Soil: Land, Politics and Conflict Prevention in Zimbabwe and South Africa. International Crisis Group, 2004. 
Crafting Peace: Strategies to Deal with Warlords in Collapsing States. Co-authored by Sasha Lezhnev. Lexington Books, 2006. 
Not On Our Watch : The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond. Co-authored with Don Cheadle. Hyperion, 2007. 
The Enough Moment: Fighting to End Africa's Worst Human Rights Crimes. Co-authored by Don Cheadle. Random House, 2010. 
Unlikely Brothers. Co-authored by Michael Mattocks. Random House, 17 May 2011. 
Congo Stories: Battling Five Centuries of Exploitation and Greed. Co-authored by Fidel Bafilemba. Grand Central Publishing, 4 December 2018.

References

External links
 
 Enough Project
 Not On Our Watch
 The Sentry
 

American human rights activists
American political writers
American foreign policy writers
American male non-fiction writers
American memoirists
American documentary filmmakers
Center for American Progress people
American academics
American educators
1963 births
Living people
Writers from Indianapolis
United States Department of State officials
United States National Security Council
American male essayists
20th-century American essayists
21st-century American essayists
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers